reigndrop

Kagehitokiri

i am extremely skeptical regarding numbers/percentages of people/guests and referral revenue. those two things are completely separate from social media participation rate. if FS is actually trying to quantify, without blindly trusting businesses who get paid a lot to make claims about data, that could be good. we may never know result, because FS (etc) may decide against even though it generates revenue. these kinds of things can also be limited PR campaigns, which will remain common no matter what new form.

more broadly, revenue sources may be something other than what is claimed, and lost / missed revenue is almost always impossible to quantify. if there can be new ways using new technologies to attempt to quantify, that could be good. but the goal has to be reality rather than just businesses convincing other businesses to believe / trust in the trends they sell.

scubadu

Aye carumba, I cannot agree with you more strongly.

This is just depressing...

Regards

BENLEE

The influencer business on social media is already big business nowadays. We see this in fashion first, and then to luxury goods and of course now to travel as well. Companies are increasing turning to these venues to market their products and a vast majority of what influencers promote are not really what they like, they are paid to do so, without the decency to call it advertisement and it's all very fake. It's surprising how so few people nowadays have the ability to make up their own damn mind about what they like or want and instead are happy to "follow" these so called influencers.

Kagehitokiri

good point re (old) seeing fashion trend on street to (new) social media including luxury hotels

there was old luxury research report that differentiated between trendsetters and connoisseurs

edit - technologically, it is possible to block cellular reception and not offer wireless internet

TheBrownPrince

I wonder if, at some point, some luxury hotels will purposely not make their properties and experiences instagrammable in order to attract those who want to dissociate from the social media crowd. I've no idea though on how this could be done properly.

vuittonsofstyle

Influencers are basically either paid for (literally) or bribed with hotel accommodation, food etc to post positive things about hotels.

PR companies are becoming increasingly unused to genuine influencers who actually critique hotels and point out deficiencies.

Fake news rules even in the world of luxury hotels.

MacMyDay

All new hotel openings must be in Bognor Regis, where the last time the sun made an appearance was by mistake after a solar eclipse in 1996. Room designs will be inspired by Jony Ive. His voice will be on non-stop loop explaining why the room is so narrow and what a great choice you have made staying there, even though every other hotel will be exactly the same. Rooms will have blackout blinds drawn with no way to open them. Michael Caines of Lympstone Manor will head up customer service. Food will be provided by McDonalds, but without any branding or ketchup to avoid bright colours. The entire hotel will be within a Faraday cage, but WiFi will be available for $10,000 per hour, although you will still be restricted to only accessing the websites for Gardener's World, Catchphrase or any show with Piers Morgan in it. There will be no brochures or books, with the exception of George Orwell's 1984.

Kagehitokiri

vuittonsofstyle, well said as usual

quote turned out to be prescient (re industry not just FS) in another thread started a few months after Cascade pushed FS CEO out, probably because she did not like cuts/changes

most luxury hotel brands have changed owners/shareholders, and those which have not have still changed like FS did, especially their approach to marketing as noted here

seems to me that brand concept is dead for luxury hotels. unless the brand concept for all brands has become that hard product and guests look good on social media.

many if not most brand regulars here seem to just like certain things. and certain different or unique things, for example aman's room counts, are not necessarily easily placed as one of the elements under heading of brand concept.

ridefar

Until there is some demonstrable link between disposable income and followers, this is just smoke and mirrors, at best.

Blogging in fashion was successful, in no small part because the majority of the audience couldn't afford LV or haute couture and still wanted to be stylish (within the realm style permitted to sheep if you will excuse some cynicism) and there was an enormous amount of product that was offered at low prices that enabled this. Disposable fashion. To the horror of Bangladesh and humanity in general.

Blogging for luxury hotels has no such saving grace. Luxury hotels are not disposable or substitutable. Unless an "influencer" can not just say I have 50,000 followers, but I have 5,000 followers with a household income of greater than $300k USD per annum, their claims should be regarded as meaningless. IMO. Since I don't use Insta/Snap/etc I will just say that I don't believe the platforms provide those capabilities. But I could be wrong. I would also add that annecdotally I think there is a ton of evidence to suggest that most of the followers active on these platforms actually have very little disposable income. So in fact the influence is being directed in a worse than useless way, it is actually a complete misdirection, or does damage insofar as it turns off actual paying customers. Which it does.

KatW

Kagehitokiri

agreed, applies to all supposed data / statistics / analysts / consultants. on the other hand, this forum is an example of two things. 1 - almost everyone here spends way above average (meaning very rare) for their respective income on luxury hotels / properties (this forum) and travel in general (rest of flyertalk). 2 - some here are on social media including MacMyDay who is one of many tech business owners here. other social media users here are both young and not so young, and not all of them are travel agents.

many here choose to spend more on less travel, many have mentioned 1 big trip per year.

speaking of analysts, i caught one on bloomberg talking about first class on airlines. not only did the guy have no idea what he was talking about, which is typical, but he pretty much only quoted other (wrong) analysis. coverage of luxury hotels is even worse, like aman, and i saw it first hand with necker coverage. irma coverage did not even attempt to be accurate, and UK television program was often misleading, understandably to sensationalize.

this is all a big part of why luxury hotel marketing has lost sight of reality and has no interest in reality.

to a certain degree, there is no longer any target audience. they ignore possibility of lost / missed revenue. not having a target audience is part of what i mean when i say brand concept is dead for luxury hotel brands.

also pretty sure china social media vs income is unlike rest of world. there were sales figures on top of anecdotes establishing that japan was unlike rest of world for income vs purchase of luxury designer brand goods. dont think travel applies for japan but it has seemed to for china, though relatively few markets like maldives and bali, off the top of my head. soneva sold corporate equity to chinese firm in conjunction with jani and supposedly additional maldives expansion.

IMHO applies to some luxury hotel marketing >
youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
"The Expert"

TheBrownPrince

I had to Google Bognor Regis to find out what it was. Love your sense of humor MacMyDay. Always a pleasure to read your posts and reviews :-)

chinmoylad

I think where it can work, and does work best from the influencer and hotel's angle, is 'obvious once-in-a-lifetime aspirational destinations' - e.g. Maldives, Bora Bora that people consider for a splurge/their honeymoon etc.

But there is a wider issue around the whole "I got paid/got this room for free so everything is great!" which needs kicking, and fast.

Kagehitokiri

"aspirational" has never made any sense, at least "once-in-a-lifetime" actually applies to some people (not here though)

are there numbers for how big chinese market is for luxury in maldives and bali? bora bora and hawaii have LA regulars

and of the course the thing in china (nowhere else) is number of followers

credit for photo reality >
calderahouse.com/spa
4 2BR 1.5Kft2 from $1250 + 4 4BR 5Kft2 from $6.5K
restaurant & cafe (popular?) & members lounge
concierge, valet, head chef can cook en-suite
location at ski lifts, basically next to FS jackson hole >
https://www.google.com/maps/place/32...4d-110.8280002